International expansion helped healthcare giant Bupa offset a "demanding"
European environment to post a jump in profits last year.

With overseas revenues growing by 14pc last year to £3.9bn, Bupa, which provides insurance and services such as care homes, recorded an 86pc jump in pre-tax surplus – or profit – to £220m.

But revenues in Europe and the US fell 2pc and Ray King, who will leave Bupa today after announcing his retirement from the role of chief executive last year, said conditions in Europe were "more demanding".

He said there was "a very big squeeze taking place" in Britain's care sector at the moment, with Bupa believing that care home fees paid by councils had fallen by just under 4pc in real terms over the past two years while care home costs have been rising.

"We believe £1.7bn extra is needed over the next three years to fill the funding gap to support a sustainable care model," he said, adding this would translate into a fee rise of between 5pc and 8pc over the next three years.

"Good care is not cheap. You cannot squeeze fees and say I want good care. It will not work," he said. "If we want our old people to be well looked after... we have to, as a society, be prepared to pay for it."